New partner family: The Anderson-Carlsness Family

Posted: 2014-12-09 10:24:10

Kaylen Anderson and Brandon Carlsness have been recently selected to partner with North St. Louis County Habitat for Humanity (NSLCHFH) for the 2015 building season. The Ely, MN Habitat for Humanity home building project is scheduled to start in the summer of 2015.

Kaylen and Brandon are no strangers to the ups and downs of life. However, their story really starts after moving to Ely to surround themselves with the positive influences in their lives that the community has to offer.

After moving to Ely, Kaylen and Brandon met and started their family. Like other families who have partnered with NSLCHFH, their current living conditions are not ideal. For a while the family of three was living in a small, one bedroom HRA apartment but since then they have moved in to Kaylen’s mom’s home. “It’s a nice house,” said Kaylen, “but it’s not ours. We need to have a place to call our own and raise our family.”

Because Kaylen and Brandon met the Habitat criteria to partner with Habitat, their friend, Debbie Hultman, encouraged them to apply for a Habitat home. They had applied for the Habitat program the year before but were turned down and encouraged to fix some things on their application and to reapply. With Debbie’s encouragement and some work on their credit they decided to apply once more.

The day they founded out that they were selected as a Habitat partner family is a day they will never forget. Brandon said that he had a feeling all day that they were going to get some form of good news. Kaylen said she cried when she got the phone call. “You don’t know what this means to us,” she said as she recalled the delivery of the good news, “we will finally have a place for our family!”

Kaylen and Brandon are excited to get the process started; to finally have a place to call their own where they can create memories and a place where their family can grow. What they are really excited about, though, is the fact that when they make their monthly mortgage payment, that money will go back to Habitat to help others build their homes as well. “When you are given an amazing opportunity,” Kaylen said, “you shouldn’t take advantage of it but make the most of it and pass it on to others.”